


Exodus

by mutantfodder



Series: LISA AU [2]
Category: LISA (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, sexual abuse mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 02:31:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14607315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mutantfodder/pseuds/mutantfodder
Summary: Marty leaves for a while, and Lisa plans her escape from his oppressive home.





	1. A Glimpse of Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> This is where my fics start delving into AU territory. Still mostly canon compliant, except Lisa doesn't die.

It was Summer vacation, and since Bernard was no longer obligated to wake up at any specific time until school started again, he adapted a rather unorthodox sleep schedule so he could spend more time with a certain someone. He knew that Lisa was most active at night, since Marty was typically asleep then and she didn’t have to worry about him doing anything to her. Bernard snuck out at 1 AM on the dot each night and lightly tapped on her window to greet her, and every time, without fail, she would cautiously poke her head out the windowsill upon his signal and climb out to meet him.

Lisa was typically a quiet person, and Bernard knew this. She had a lot of trouble expressing herself, so instead of saying things outright, she would make little signals to try to silently get the point across. He had come to learn her signals, and could communicate with her flawlessly without uttering a single word. However, tonight seemed to be different. When she hoisted herself out of the window, she was filled with a distinct energy that he had never really seen her with before. She greeted him with a smile so big her mouth nearly ripped at the seams.

“Berny, you’re not gonna believe this,” she whispered. She could scarcely contain herself, just barely holding on long enough for Bernard to speak.

“Did something happen?” he asked.

“Only the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life,” Lisa beamed. “Okay, so, Marty goes out to get scratch tickets every Friday night.” Bernard nodded, signaling her to go on.

“Tonight, he actually won. _ Four thousand dollars _ , and he’s gonna go blow it all on a vacation out of state for a whole week,” she continued, “So do you know what that means?”

“What?”

“It means I’m free for a  _ whole week _ ,” Lisa whisper-shouted, “Think of all the stuff we could do for a whole week!” She grabbed Bernard’s hands and shook them with glee. This was by far the happiest he’d ever seen her.

“Seriously? That’s great!” he whispered back, “He’s not taking you with him?”  
The joy in Lisa’s eyes left upon being asked that. “No? Do you really think he cares about me enough to take me along with him?” She shook her head, and her shoulders tensed up. “I’m sure there’s a lot of little sluts unfortunate enough for him to use in wherever he’s going. There’s no reason for him to drag me there.”

Bernard tensed up. For a brief moment, he forgot that Lisa had been used… like that. Seeing her so happy made it almost seem like she was okay, but he quickly realized how wrong he was. “You—I didn't mean it like that. Sorry. Um… W-What do you want to do on your break?” He managed to choke out, eager to change the subject. Her shoulders relaxed a little as she thought of the possibilities before her.

“I could… We could go to Wally’s! Like before, except in a real one, not the abandoned one. Or maybe we could—” Lisa’s eyes widened, staring intensely at the ground. “I could run away.”

“Woah,” Bernard gasped, equally enthralled by the idea, “You really could.”  
A small, desperate smile began to creep back onto Lisa’s face as the plan started to take shape in her mind. “With a whole week, I could run so far away from Olathe, he would never be able to find me again,” She laughed weakly, “I wouldn’t even have to pack. I don’t have anything important. You could come too. We could start running the second he left the front door. It’s genius.” She met Bernard’s eyes, a broad smile plastered on her pale face. “ _I’d never have to see him again!”_

“Wait, you can’t just run off somewhere completely random! You’d have nowhere to stay!” Bernard pleaded, “Maybe, um… You could stay at Master Ar—Brad’s house? I’m sure he’d let you, right?”

Lisa mulled over her options for a moment. Bernard was right; running off aimlessly would be a stupid idea. She’d have nowhere to sleep, and would probably get taken in by the authorities in less than an hour. But Brad’s place seemed like a dangerous option, too. It would probably be the first place Marty would look for her. It was too obvious. She supposed that the latter would be the more reasonable option, but she would have to play her cards very carefully regardless.

“Yeah. That’s… smarter, actually. You’re right.” Lisa finally said, absentmindedly tracing circles in the dirt with her foot. “He’s leaving tomorrow morning. I dunno what time. He caught me eavesdropping before he said specifically.” She gingerly traced her hand over a fresh bruise on her left cheek, which Bernard hadn’t noticed until she drew attention to it.  _ Christ, _ he thought,  _ all that just for eavesdropping? _

“We should make a break for Brad’s after he leaves, then,” he offered, “Or, wait, maybe it would be smarter to go at night, in case he comes back during the day for some reason. Let’s… just meet when we always do, all right?” Lisa nodded silently. She was back to her old, quiet self again, which was comforting to Bernard in a strange way. Seeing her so talkative felt…  _ wrong _ , somehow, and it was reassuring to have the old Lisa back.

“I’ll tap on your window then, okay? We can go together.” He gently put his hand over hers, and she moved her free hand over and placed it over his in response, slowly tracing her fingers over the back of his hand. Lisa shifted a bit so she could lean her body against his. For a moment, they just sat in silence, enjoying each other’s company as they thought of the escape plan. Bernard’s voice interrupted the stillness of the night after a pleasant couple minutes.

“Make sure you go to sleep tonight, okay?” he reminded her, “You should rest for tomorrow.” Lisa nodded again and flashed a brief, toothy smile to him, rising to her feet. He smiled back warmly, and she hesitantly turned around to climb back into her room. But, as her hands made contact with the window frame, she paused and turned back around to face Bernard.

“Hey, Berny?”  
“Yeah?”  
“I love you.”  
Bernard felt his cheeks get hot, and not just because of the sweltering summer night air. It was rare that Lisa ever showed much compassion, and it caught him pleasantly by surprise every time. “Love you too. Goodnight, Lisa.” She smiled back before climbing through the window, and Bernard stood there in the quiet night air before turning back and heading home.


	2. New Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisa's great escape plan comes to fruition.

Marty left without warning. He knew Lisa knew damn well what he was doing, so he didn’t bother to officially announce his departure to her aside from slamming the door extra hard on his way out.  _ Prick, _ Lisa thought as she watched him shamble into his piece-of-crap car and then drive off from her window. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it broke down right there in the driveway, but it didn’t, and she was left to her own devices as it clunked down the road and out of sight.

Lisa didn’t really have anything to pack for the impending escape from Marty’s house. There wasn’t really anything in the house that belonged to her specifically, save for a few hand-me-down articles of clothing and the pendant that she cherished so dearly. Instead of spending her time packing, she crept downstairs once she was sure the coast was clear and started raiding the pantry.

Marty typically didn’t leave any food for her in the house, since he normally went out or bought takeout for one for his meals, but he was considerate enough to leave some bare-basics food for her for the following week. Within the dusty cupboards was a loaf of bread, a stick of butter, a squishy banana, and a miniature bag of chips—in its entirety it probably cost less than ten dollars, and there’s no way in hell it could last her for more than two days.  _ Yeah, wouldn’t want your little sex toy starving to death, would you?  _ She sneered to herself,  _ You bastard. I can’t wait to get out of here and leave you to rot forever. _

She snickered at the thought. After all these years of his torment, he would be the loser in the end, alone in his wreck of a house and growing old and gray alone. The thought made her giddy, and she stifled a smile as she practically danced back up to her room, her arms full of last-minute groceries. She kicked the door close with her foot, slamming it as loud as she could manage. She knew that this would be her last day in this hellhole, so she figured she could slam as many doors as she pleased.

She dumped the food on the bed with her arms spread wide and flopped onto the uncomfortable mattress. A wayward spring dug into her side, but she couldn’t rouse herself to care. She started wolfing down her little feast, building up fuel for tonight. She had no idea how far away Brad lived from here, so she needed to prepare. After a few minutes, everything was gone except the loaf of bread, which she proceeded to pick at for the next hour. It was dry, and since the butter was completely melted in the stifling heat of the Armstrong house, she had no choice but to suck it up and finish it all.

It wasn’t long before Lisa was doubled over in the bathroom, puking her guts out. Her stomach couldn’t handle eating that much that quickly, especially after having virtually nothing for the previous two days, and was reacting poorly to it.  _ What was I thinking!?  _ Lisa thought to herself as she hurled,  _ You’re retarded! Why did you do that!? Now I’m gonna be starving and there won’t be anything left!  _ After a while, there was nothing left in her, and she was left dry heaving over the filthy bowl.

Lisa staggered to her feet and wiped the vomit off her mouth with her trembling fist. She then hobbled over to the sink and tried to wash it out of her shirt, to little avail. She wanted to look at least a little presentable when she showed up to Brad’s, so she had put on her last decently clean shirt, and now it was ruined just like the rest of them. She shook with anger at herself, staring down her pitiful reflection in the smudgy bathroom mirror. 

“Damn it, damn it…” She whispered at herself. She was out of options to tidy herself up—her other shirts were equally filthy or worse, and she couldn’t steal one of Marty’s shirts, since he kept the door locked tight at all times. She bitterly accepted this cold truth and left the bathroom, and slowly made her way back to her room.

Time crawled by from that point on. She tried to take a nap to kill time, but she was so restless about what was to come that she couldn’t sleep a wink. She kept looking back at the dinky little Salvation Rangers-themed clock, which Brad left behind when he moved out, restlessly watching each minute go by.

Despite everything, Lisa was wriggling with glee. She couldn’t stop thinking about getting to live with Brad, about going to school again and making friends like a normal kid, about Berny and how happy she was that she had met him, and about how finally, after a lifetime of waiting, she would be rid of Marty forever. It seemed too good to be true. It was almost like  _ she _ won the lottery, that the stars aligned for  _ her  _ happiness to finally come true, not that fucking sicko Marty. Her body ached for time to speed up and for 1 AM to come by sooner, but it didn’t, and she was subject to ten more hours of the agony of the waiting game.

1 AM eventually rolled by, and Lisa was perched on the edge of her bed, watching the window intently. She kept looking back at the little clock, then back to the window, her apprehension growing with each passing minute. Finally, she heard the tap, and she sprinted towards the window, barely able to contain her excitement. She swung it open and practically leapt out, and greeted Bernard with the same giant smile she had the night before.

“All packed?” He asked.

“I don’t need to pack. I don’t have anything.”

“Let’s go, then!”

Hand in hand, they started walking down the road. No street lights shone on Lisa’s street, so they had to navigate by moonlight alone.

“How far away is Brad’s?” She finally asked.  
“Uh, like twenty minutes from here?” Bernard guessed, “Not far. I know the way, don’t worry.” Lisa nodded, and they walked in blissful silence for the rest of the way. The warm, fresh summer night air tasted like heaven to her after being pent up at Marty’s for so long, unable to escape the miasma of alcohol and bile that permeated through the entire house. _This is what freedom is like_ , she thought to herself.

Finally, they stopped at a little house, which was somewhat out of the way—they had to cut through a field to get there. It was a little run-down, and a worn punching bag dangled from the porch ceiling. The door had two chinese letters painted on them in a shaky hand. The house screamed Brad; there was no mistaking that this was it.

“Here we are,” Bernard whispered, “You ready?” Lisa stood silently for a minute, taking it all in, before nodding to him. The pair slowly walked up the rickety steps to the front door, and Bernard hesitantly knocked. They were greeted by silence, then shuffling, and then an exhausted-looking Brad in the doorway. His eyes widened when he realized who was there, and he took a step back.

“L—Lisa?” He stammered, “And Bernard? What—do you need something?”  
“I’m staying here,” Lisa said flatly. Her expression remained steely, but her shaky grip on Bernard’s hand tightened in apprehension. He felt his fingers go numb, but said nothing. “I’m not gonna stay with dad any more.”

Brad nodded solemnly and opened the door for them without a word. Lisa’s grip tightened ever further as they walked in, and Bernard avoided eye contact with Brad. Brad closed the door quietly behind them and flicked a switch, flooding the room with flickering light.

“Is the couch okay?” Brad asked flatly. Bernard took note of how similar his and Lisa’s mannerisms were; how cold-cut their speech was, how they preferred not to speak always, and that indescribable look in their eyes that he could never quite figure out. It never registered with him until now, but it was so glaringly obvious now that they were standing next to each other.

“Anything is fine,” Lisa replied, an equally sharp tone in her voice, “I’ll sleep on the floor if I have to.” Bernard avoided eye contact with both of them, trying to ignore Lisa’s nails digging into his palm. Lisa led him to the couch, which was surprisingly comfortable, and flopped down beside him. Her vice on his hand loosened, and she shifted to get herself comfortable. Brad stared on blankly before excusing himself and exited the room.

“Are you gonna stay here tonight?” She asked, once she was sure Brad was gone.

“Do you want me to?” Bernard replied. Lisa nodded pleadingly. “Then, yeah. I am.”

A tiny smile crept onto Lisa’s face, and she sunk deeper into the couch and leaned onto Bernard’s shoulder. He felt the warmth of her tiny body against his, and snuggled closer to her. i

“Hey, Lisa?”  
“Mm?”  
“I love you.”  
“Mm.” She was already half-asleep and couldn’t rouse herself to actually say anything, but Bernard appreciated it nonetheless. With that, they both drifted off to sleep, perfectly content.

**Author's Note:**

> Zoo wee mama


End file.
